Zhou Zhuang [周庄]
I went to Zhou Zhuang (周庄) 3 weeks ago in a one-day tour. This is a long forgotten old town about an hour distance from Shanghai. Two events have helped bring this town into a popular tourist attraction and subsequently a national historical site under protection of the State. Because of a paint, which turned out has helped to tie back China and US relationship during the 80’s, and a personal story of a local government head who ended up becoming the Premier of China shortly after visiting this town, now every Chinese want to know how this town looks and want to have the same fortune as the previous Premier (升官发财). And not only did it attract locals, it also attracted Hollywoods to come to shoot a little part of Mission Impossible III in this town, where Tom Cruise was chased on the river side and finally killed his betrayer.
There are other water towns around Shanghai, but none of them are as close to Zhou Zhuang in terms of popularity and quality of the site, earning it the title of The Best Water Town of China or 中国第一水乡 —- 周庄. Every morning there’re at least 50 tourist buses pouring people in this village, all of them got stuck in the tiny allies and attractions of this tiny village not bigger than half a square kilometer.
The ticket for going into the “attraction section” of the town is quite expensive by China tourism standard, 120RMB, which was included in my tour ticket of ~200RMB, they came to pick me up at home and drove me back at the end. Needless to say, tour companies are not making much money in China, the level of competition is incredible and they’re eating each other’s profit.
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